Zollie
A masculine diminutive of the English name Laurence, meaning "crowned with laurel".
Name Census estimates that about 239 living Americans carry the first name Zollie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 86.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Zollie today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zollie births was 1919 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zollie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Zollie is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Zollies were born before 1963.
People living today
239
~ 1 in 1,434,119 Americans
Peak year
1919
32 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
1986 SSA rank
#7,829
Tracked since 1884
Census
Zollie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 359 people with the first name Zollie, which placed it at #26,116 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#26,116
National first-name rank
People counted
359
359 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zollie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zollie is Black at 45.7%. The next largest groups are White (45.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Zollie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Zollie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.7% · 164
- White45.4% · 163
- Two or more races4.2% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Zollie
Zollie leans heavily male at 86.0% of total registrations, but 134 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Zollie as a male name
- Ranked #7,829 in 1986
- 5 male births in 1986
- Peak: 1916 (23 births)
Zollie as a female name
- Ranked #18,423 in 2003
- 5 female births in 2003
- Peak: 1917 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Zollie on both sides of the split. Of the 358 people counted with this name, 284 were male (79.3%) and 74 were female (20.7%).
Popularity
Zollie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zollie from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 196 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zollie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Zollie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zollies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia recorded the most babies named Zollie, while Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zollie
The name Zollie is believed to have its origins in the German language, derived from the word "zoll," which means "toll" or "customs duty." It is thought to have emerged during the medieval period, around the 12th or 13th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Zollie can be traced back to a German nobleman named Zollie von Hohenzollern, who lived in the late 13th century. He was a prominent figure in the region and played a significant role in the collection of customs duties for his lord.
In the 15th century, the name Zollie gained popularity among the merchant class in parts of what is now modern-day Germany and the Netherlands. It was often given to children whose families were involved in trade or commerce, as a nod to the name's association with customs and tolls.
One notable individual bearing the name Zollie was Zollie Meister, a German merchant and explorer who embarked on several voyages to the far corners of the known world during the 16th century. His travels and written accounts of distant lands helped to expand the geographical knowledge of his time.
The name Zollie also found its way into religious texts and records. In the early 17th century, a Benedictine monk named Zollie Benedikt was renowned for his scholarly work on the translation and interpretation of ancient manuscripts.
In the realm of the arts, Zollie Rembrandt, a Dutch painter and etcher born in 1625, was a contemporary of the famous Rembrandt van Rijn. While not as celebrated as his namesake, Zollie Rembrandt's works were highly regarded during his lifetime.
The name Zollie continued to be used throughout the centuries, though its popularity waxed and waned in different regions. Notably, Zollie Schumann, a German composer and pianist from the 19th century, made significant contributions to the Romantic era of classical music.
People
Zollie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zollie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zollie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zollie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 239 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zollie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,434,119 US residents.
Is Zollie a common name?
We classify Zollie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 957 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zollie most popular?
The single biggest year for Zollie was 1919, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zollie is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zollie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 359 people with the name Zollie, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,116 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Zollie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Zollie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Zollie on both sides of the split. Of the 358 people counted with this name, 284 were male (79.3%) and 74 were female (20.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Zollie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zollie is Black at 45.7%. The next largest groups are White (45.4%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Zollie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Zollie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.7% (164 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Zollie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zollie a male name?
Yes, 86.0% of people registered as Zollie in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Zollie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zollie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Zollie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Zollie?
Want to know how many Americans are named Zollie? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.